Bad metals conduct electricity, but their conductivity is so small that they are seemingly incompatible with a conventional weakly interacting description. Controlled theoretical descriptions of bad metals are few and far between. I will discuss several different recent theories of bad metals that draw on ideas from hydrodynamics, the idea of fundamental bounds on quantum dynamics, and on the dynamics of spontaneously broken spacetimes symmetries (density waves).

Laetitia & Richard Garriott de Cayeux

Since the dawn of the space race, space launch technology has relied on chemical combustion to send rockets into space, but if we want to dramatically reduce the cost of space access, we need new innovative technologies that go beyond the inherent limit of chemical combustion. One promising solution uses beamed energy to launch spaceplanes into orbit. Join space technology entrepreneur Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux and astronaut Richard Garriott de Cayeux as they discuss the current state of space launch technology and the physics behind the innovative ideas that are rapidly reducing the cost of space access.

About the speakers

Richard Lord British Garriott de Cayeux authored the famed Ultima series and is credited with creating the category of massively multiplayer games. A principal shaper of commercial spaceflight, he co-founded Space Adventures, the only company to arrange spaceflights for private citizens, and was the sixth private astronaut to live aboard the International Space Station. Laetitia Garriott de Cayeux is co-founder, President, and COO of Escape Dynamics, which is developing an electromagnetic externally-powered space launch system to send single-stage reusable rockets into LEO. Prior to this, she had a successful 15 year career in finance with Goldman Sachs, Renaissance Technologies, and then her own investment firm.